I'd be happy if ford would offer the 6 sp manual here instead of the old 5 sp. I am sure ford's rationale is that not too many guys want manuals but i bet if the 6sp were offered they'd sell many more manuals than they currently do now w/ the 5 sp. And since the 6 sp is offered in the ST (and the upcoming fiesta ST), it would be easy to make the switch for ford.

It's also more complicated than this, they have to certify every powertrain combination to be emissions compliant and that includes the manual gearbox. With the projected take rate having been less than 10% it didn't make sense to certify the 2.0 L GDI engine with two different manual transmissions.

The Fiesta ST uses a different 6 speed transmission to that of the Focus ST also but that's becasue of the 1.6 L EcoBoost engine.

The Fiesta ST uses the lighter duty Ford B6 6-speed manual transaxle, which is also used in the Focus 1.6L EcoBoost 150-182PS in Europe.

If they didn't have to re-certify the power train combination in the Focus once approved in the Fiesta ST they would still have to run EPA fuel economy testing because people didn't like the loophole that let them test the Fusion hybrid and then use the same powertrain and weight figures for the C-MAX hybrid.

Not sure off hand which gearbox the Fusion 1.6 is using, but it's probably not the MMT6 from the Focus ST based on the power levels.

It would have been nice to see the 1.6 as an intermediate step between the 2.0 L GDI and the 2.0L GTDI EcoBoost engine in the ST, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen at least until the mid cycle refresh if at all.